Sun, 6 March 2022
The European Union this week agreed a plan to eradicate homelessness by 2030. One of the main objectives is get a more accurate view of how many people are without fixed accommodation across the 27 member states and adapt policies accordingly.
"2030 is a marker, an ideal, so that we can all share the same objective," the French minister of housing Emmanuelle Wargon told the press earlier this week when the agreement was announced.
Adopted under France’s rotating presidency of the bloc which began in January, the plan was initiated in June 2021 by Portugal and is coordinated by Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme.
"We’ll try and target zero, but there will always be people who fall through the cracks," European Commissioner for Social Issues, Nicolas Schmit said.
"But we must reduce the number and above all shorten the length of time that people stay homeless."
The European parliament has already started a new census that will be carried out over a short period of time which aims to get a better idea of how many homeless people there are across the member states at any one time.
Using this kind of approach allowed the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (Feantsa) to estimate that in 2020, there were around 700,000 people sleeping rough or in emergency centres every night across the bloc.
Comparative data
As of 2023, the organisation Eurostat will gather all data about the number of people previously recorded as homeless in order to measure changes in living conditions.
"It’s the first time that there will be comparable data for all member states," Freek Spinnewijn, director of the Feantsa told French news agency AFP.
"Even if it concerns people who were homeless in the past, it will allow us to compare and see in a very coherent way, where the problems lie, and where they stem from. I think that will be very useful," he says.
"If you see there are more single men, or women, or young people without housing, then you can adapt the policies accordingly. Having solid statistics is fundamental to have the right policies."
The European Commission will work with the OECD to establish different categories for the data and harmonise them across the Union, something which has been lacking until now.
This will help distinguish those people who sleep in the street, or squat in old buildings, from those in emergency housing, or those who have found temporary housing with relatives or friends.
Improving objectives
Some countries regularly count their homeless people – for example every month in Ireland - while others have more sporadic ways of keeping track.
France’s last census on the subject, carried out by the National Statistics Body (Insee) dates back to 2012, and the next one will not be released until 2025.
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Although the policies for housing does not depend directly on European rules, knowing how each country handles the issue is key to improving the situation globally.
"When we know the population that will be affected by these policies, then we can improve the objectives," president of the European platform for the anti-homelessness project Yves Leterme told AFP.
But difficulties remain when it comes to the methods for gathering reliable data.
France's 'Nuit de la Solidarité' (Night of Solidarity) regularly counts the number of homeless people in cities like Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux and Saint-Etienne but they rely on volunteers who are not necessarily trained for this kind of work, rendering it less efficient.
This year on the night of 20 January, 2,600 people were counted by the 350 teams sent out across the city of Paris.
Practical approach
"What we’re looking for is not necessarily figures, it’s also the qualitative aspect," European director for the Abbé-Pierre Foundation, Sarah Coupechoux told AFP.
"That is to say, we need to look at people not just in terms of their gender, age or family situation but also their background, how they ended up needing our services," she explains.
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"We can’t afford to spend years debating over the perfect, harmonious definition,” adds Ruth Owen, vice-president of the Feantsa. "Let’s be practical. Reinventing the wheel won’t work, it’s not what we want and we don’t have time," she says.
Other projects in the EU plan include the creation of a prize to award the best initiatives for helping homeless people and an information campaign in 2024 to encourage member states to contribute more funding to accommodation and housing.
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